Movies have spent more than a century proving that geography is mostly optional. If the mountains look right, a beach is wide enough, or a studio can build several city blocks from scratch, almost anywhere can become somewhere else. Vietnam has appeared in London, New York has been rebuilt in Rome, and Russia once materialized outside Madrid during one of Spain’s warmest winters. Sometimes the stand-in is only a few hundred miles away. Other productions cross oceans and continents without the audience ever noticing. One movie even found a reasonably convincing version of Mars without leaving Earth. Here are 15 movie sets that were nowhere close to where they were supposed to be.Vietnam Was Actually LondonStanley Kubrick barely had to leave Britain to make Full Metal Jacket. The ruined streets of Hue were filmed at London’s abandoned Beckton Gasworks, with other British locations doubling for Vietnam and Parris Island.IMDbOmaha Beach Was in IrelandThe opening of Saving Private Ryan recreates the Normandy landings, but Spielberg filmed the enormous Omaha Beach sequence at Curracloe Beach in County Wexford, Ireland.IMDbScorsese Built New York in RomeRather than transform modern Manhattan into the city of the 1860s, Gangs of New York constructed its huge Five Points sets at Cinecittà Studios in Rome.IMDbRussia Was Having a Very Spanish WinterMost of Doctor Zhivago was filmed in Spain, where an enormous Moscow set was built outside Madrid. Unfortunately, an unusually warm winter meant the production sometimes had to manufacture its own snow.IMDbJapan Was Actually New ZealandMuch of The Last Samurai filmed around Taranaki, New Zealand. The Uruti Valley became a 19th-century Japanese village, while Mount Taranaki convincingly stood in for Mount Fuji.IMDbMontenegro Was in the Czech RepublicBond may arrive in Montenegro in Casino Royale, but the elegant Casino Royale exterior was actually the former Kaiserbad Spa in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.IMDbThe American West Was Mostly SpainThe landscapes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are supposed to be the American Southwest, but Sergio Leone found his frontier across Spain, including Burgos and Almería.IMDbCold Mountain Was in the CarpathiansDespite being named for a real North Carolina mountain, much of Cold Mountain was filmed across Romania. The Carpathian Mountains provided the sweeping landscapes supposedly surrounding the characters’ Appalachian home.IMDbKorea Was Just Outside Los AngelesThe Korean War camp in the 1970 movie MASH* was actually constructed at what is now Malibu Creek State Park in California, with additional scenes shot around Los Angeles.IMDbThe Overlook Hotel Crossed an OceanThe Shining places its isolated hotel in the American Rockies, but most of the Overlook’s interiors and even a full exterior facade were built at Elstree Studios in England.IMDbTehran Was Partly IstanbulArgo needed 1979 Tehran but filmed significant portions of the production in Istanbul, using Turkish streets and landmarks as part of its recreation of Iran.IMDbPakistan Was India and JordanZero Dark Thirty used Chandigarh, India, to stand in for Pakistani locations including Lahore and Abbottabad, while Amman, Jordan, doubled for Islamabad.IMDbStalingrad Was Rebuilt in GermanyFor Enemy at the Gates, the Battle of Stalingrad unfolded around Brandenburg, Germany. A derelict factory became the tractor works, while an enormous Red Square set rose near Potsdam.IMDbThe Titanic Sank in MexicoJames Cameron’s Titanic obviously could not shoot most of its shipboard story in the North Atlantic, so a massive production facility and ship set were built in Rosarito, Baja California.IMDbMars Was in JordanRidley Scott found Mars on Earth for The Martian. The red rock formations and desert landscapes surrounding Matt Damon were filmed at Wadi Rum in Jordan.The post 15 Movie Sets That Were Nowhere Close to Where They Were Supposed to Be appeared first on Den of Geek.